While a “cell” is a concept representing a communication area which a base station covers, a “femtocell” has recently attracted attention as one for covering a small area with a radius of several tens of meters such as within a home or an office.
“Femtocell” is built by connecting a femto base station, which is a base station that outputs radio waves at a level where such a small area is covered, with a terminating device of a broadband network installed on the premises such as an ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) modem or an ONU (Optional Network Unit).
Unlike a “macrocell”, which is a wide cell for the general public having a radius of several hundreds of meters to several kilometers, a “femtocell” provides communication service to limited users such as residents in a house in which a femto base station is installed.